The seed of the idea for this trip to New Zealand germinated in a fit of sleep Jason had on the 4th of July, 2016. He woke up and announced his grand plan: we should move to New Zealand. The idea was that there would be massive plots of land for low prices, and it seemed easy. They speak the same language, the land seems lush, so who couldn't grow something and there has to be massive opportunity. Despite this infallible logic, Jessica simply suggested that we visit before making a big move. One and a half years later, here we are in beautiful New Zealand - for a vacation, not a move.
Jason's hypothesis was half wrong, but let's talk about where he was right first. It certainly is easy! We are only 16 short hours from our lovely bubble in Santa Monica. When we landed, we breezed through customs in the shortest passport checkpoint we have ever seen - no interaction with people at all. I guess we don't look threatening. Then, we jumped in the first cab and our driver not only spoke perfect English, he knew exactly where "the downtown Hilton" was. When we asked our hotel staff where we should walk to eat, we also asked, "where should we avoid." It was all the concierge could do to stop from laughing at us, "You might want to avoid the drunks on Queen's street around 3am tonight, but otherwise, you are fine." Imagine someone telling you can walk anywhere in LA! Near our house, there is a street that we always give a 2 block radius. Not in New Zealand. This place is just easy!
We made the most of the easy town with a walk through downtown on the first day and a day trip out to a nearby island on the second. We saw a downtown, mixed with great parks, all kinds of ethnic foods, interesting museums and lots of sailboats - with the mandatory drawbridges. One of the attached pictures has us at a recent exhibit of Yayoi Kusama, an artist famous for her colorful dots. Yayoi's exhibits typically have long lines and expensive tickets. This one was free and we just walked in. Easy! After you look at the picture, you might say we became a part of the piece. The second day included a zip line through the local canopy, followed by a bush-walk through 600 year old trees with a trail guide and finished up with a tasting of the local wines. To further underline how easy this country is, Jessica highlighted that her zip line tour in Panama included mattress tied to trees for "safety" versus our Waiheke experience where we had at least 4 safety mechanisms providing backup to our backups' backups.
The town is truly easy…. but it ain't cheap. We think the cost of living hear is about as "dear" as Santa Monica. We can really only estimate by our short stint at some nearby restaurants and a few slow walks by real estate windows. In the end, we realized a few important factors that changed our estimates. Jason strongly believes that one contributing factor to the increase in prices: Oprah and Reese Witherspoon each announced their love for New Zealand on their Instagram feeds with millions of followers. Dam celebrities! Jessica is a bit more practical. She thinks that we were not the only ones to think, boy, this seems easy and a nice place to live.
Either way, a life here is likely the same, but slightly different, to a life in the states. Our vacation (so far, in the North Island near Auckland only) feels more like a trip to Hawaii (sun and beaches) / Seattle (waterways and sailboats) than it does a trip to a different country across the Pacific.
Our next few days will have us at a "Hideaway" near Otawa Beach - off the grid. Time to double down on the Hawaii similarities.
Until our next writing!
Jessica & Jason
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